Happy anniversary! Today marks year number 2 since you first became a Sifter and the community is better for having you. Thanks for your contributions!

Happy Birthday!

Drinking the koolaid, my friend, drinking the koolaid.

I presume you are not wealthy? But you want the wealthy to get wealthier while the country drowns in debt.

I'll let you have the last word. If cold hard facts don't move you, nothing will.

In reply to this comment by maestro156:
That's what I call appropriately aligned incentives. They've already paid taxes on the wages that went to buy the investments. If you raise taxes on capital gains you incentivize them to spend it arbitrarily, while if you keep capital gains low, you incentivize them to invest it.

I think it's clear that investments are a better expenditure than arbitrary spending, but you can feel free to disagree.

In reply to this comment by bareboards2:
The struggle to have the government be the "right" size is a conversation that will go on for as long as we have a viable country. There is no right answer.

However.

I do taxes. Let me tell you something...

Married filing joint. Dividend income from US corporations of $80,000. You know how much tax this couple pays?

$200. I swear to God.

If that same couple had wage income? Then they would pay $8,400 in income taxes, plus as additional $6,100 in payroll taxes.

I did a return for a married couple who had taxable income of $70,000, after standard deduction and exemptions of $16,000, who paid $3,000 in tax. In other words, income of $89,000 paying $3,000 in tax. Had a big capital gain, all of which was taxes at ZERO TAX RATE. Zero. ZERO.

Don't talk to me about the debt. DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT THE DEBT without talking about putting tax rates back.

It is a crime what has gone on in this country for the capital-heavy people. Wages and pensions get taxed full bore, but capital?

Drives me crazy.

The struggle to have the government be the "right" size is a conversation that will go on for as long as we have a viable country. There is no right answer.

However.

I do taxes. Let me tell you something...

Married filing joint. Dividend income from US corporations of $80,000. You know how much tax this couple pays?

$200. I swear to God.

If that same couple had wage income? Then they would pay $8,400 in income taxes, plus as additional $6,100 in payroll taxes.

I did a return for a married couple who had taxable income of $70,000, after standard deduction and exemptions of $16,000, who paid $3,000 in tax. In other words, income of $89,000 paying $3,000 in tax. Had a big capital gain, all of which was taxes at ZERO TAX RATE. Zero. ZERO.

Don't talk to me about the debt. DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT THE DEBT without talking about putting tax rates back.

It is a crime what has gone on in this country for the capital-heavy people. Wages and pensions get taxed full bore, but capital?

Drives me crazy.

In reply to this comment by maestro156:
The debt is only a symptom of a much larger problem, oversized government.

Though even if we returned the taxes to where they were a year ago, we've long since outgrown those tax rates. It simply wouldn't help. The only realistic way to get out of debt is to stop spending so much. If we even _froze_ our spending for 10 years, we'd grow our way out of debt. (And yes before you ask, that includes shrinking our military pretty heavily as well)


In reply to this comment by bareboards2:
Put the taxes back to where they were ten years ago, if the debt is such a worry.

Stop using the debt as a reason, please.

In reply to this comment by maestro156:
T

we would have the most important of these in place, while keeping the size and scope of our government limited in a way that would have avoided our current indebtedness.

Put the taxes back to where they were ten years ago, if the debt is such a worry.

Stop using the debt as a reason, please.

In reply to this comment by maestro156:
T

we would have the most important of these in place, while keeping the size and scope of our government limited in a way that would have avoided our current indebtedness.

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Happy anniversary! Today marks year number 1 since you first became a Sifter and the community is better for having you. Thanks for your contributions!